Scholarly Life Research Articles

Polyculed: A Writer’s Tale of Surviving the Pandemic and a Polycule

Through the lens of life writing, this essay explores contemporary and historical polyamory and its relationship with identity-formation and artistic personae. In particular, the essay triangulates the lives of Virginia Woolf and members of the Bloomsbury Set with a current-day polycule of artists. Polyamorous sexual identities and politics are further explored through descriptive depictions of social class, mobility, and wealth, especially within the realm of academia, and examines how the resultant poly lifestyle bears upon the lives of creative writers, literary scholars, and artists.

Looking Backward, Looking Forward

This essay discusses three themes of my scholarly life from my student days up to today. They involve technological change, environmental accounting, and energy-climate-economic analysis. These themes have common analytical roots in the economic theory of public goods and encounter thorny issues of governance because of the Westphalian roots of international law and practice. Many of the issues, such as devising measures of natural capital and the need for strengthened international institutions, are just as pressing today as they were during my student days in the 1960s. In writing this, the enduring insight is that hindsight is the best foresight.

Studies, cultivation of the mind, and formation of character: The life of scholars in Jiangnan in the Late Ming Dynasty

During the late Ming Dynasty, the region of Jiangnan fostered a high number of remarkable figures who had extensive and important influence on the living world of officials and gentry as a whole. Apart from the requirements of the imperial civil service examination system, the family or clan’s education of descendants was particularly important. With respect to the plan for the life of a scholar, the civil service examinations were an avenue or ladder to becoming an outstanding member of society or entering the realm of success, and by this means, one could potentially achieve the objectives of wealth and high rank recognized by secular society. Progress in one’s studies lay at the heart of family culture and education, and this was naturally largely tied to the civil services examinations, while also being related to expectations regarding political life and service to the state, but for the most part, a fair degree of attention was also given to cultivation of the mind and the formation of character. This was not merely localized, but furthermore has had profound and far-reaching influence on Chinese society since the late Ming Dynasty. Further examination or analysis on these levels not only aids in revealing the atmosphere in that era, but furthermore also contributes to clearing such paradigmatic historical memories and impartially observing the shape of the lives of local intellectuals over the course of history at large. Setting out from Jiangnan allows us to better understand the sociocultural history of China since the traditional era as well as the living world of the Chinese people.

Academic citizenship, together: Prioritising care and reflexivity in scholarly life

This essay explores dimensions of academic citizenship relating to collegiality and collectivity within academia. Building on notions of reflexivity and care, and from a starting point that highlights some of the problems of the conditions and nature of contemporary academic work, it offers a discussion of how scholars might define and interrogate values for relating to one another as colleagues. Though we focus on and discuss our own values and practices, we argue for the processual, unfinished nature of these. Academic citizenship is thus framed as a reflexive process that aims to create caring spaces within academia

EXPLORING THE SACRED SITES OF THE KASHKADARYA REGION

This comprehensive article delves into the geographical positioning of the revered mukhtarakhs within the Kitab District of the Kashkadarya region. It intricately examines the life and activities of the esteemed khaki scholars and saints who have left an indelible mark on the cultural and spiritual landscape of the area. Through meticulous exploration, the article sheds light on the profound significance of these luminaries, offering valuable insights into their teachings, contributions, and enduring legacywithin the rich tapestry of Kashkadarya's religious heritage.

Teaching Turkish-Islamic Scholars in Mobile Augmented Reality Environment: Its Effect on Students' Scientific Attitudes

Science history showcases scientific thought's evolution and discoveries to students. Some topics include abstract concepts, making them challenging. Technology enhances teaching history of science, making it more effective and accessible. This study aims to examine the influence of teaching the lives of Turkish-Islamic scholars who have made significant contributions in various scientific disciplines such as astronomy, chemistry, and physics through TISAR-3D, a Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) based learning environment, on secondary school students' scientific attitudes. A quasi-experimental method was employed in this study. This study was conducted in a public school in Elazığ, involving a total of 90 students in the 7th grade. Half of these students were assigned to the experimental group, while the other half formed the control group. The study was carried out for a duration of eight weeks on the experimental and control groups. The study lasted for eight weeks and consisted of an experiment group and a control group. The TISAR-3D application was used in the experiment group, while reading texts were used in the control group. The data obtained through the Scientific Attitude Scale were analyzed quantitatively using the SPSS 22 software package, and ANCOVA was applied. The study found that although the average scientific attitude scores of students in the experiment group, where the MAR application was used, were higher than the average scores of students in the control group, where reading texts were used, there was no statistically significant difference. Although primary textbooks are accessible to all students, insufficient coverage of Turkish-Islamic scholars and unfamiliarity with practical scholars may explain the lack of significant differences in scientific attitudes. Also, an eight-week study may not sufficiently alter students' scientific attitudes. By designing longer-term studies, a better understanding of how scientific attitudes develop and change over time can be achieved.

Margaret Sankey: A Life of Scholarship

Margaret Sankey: A Life of Scholarship

„Arystokrata zamknięty w Archiwum”. Archiwalna droga Alfreda Wielopolskiego

„An Aristocrat Locked in the Archives”. The Archival Journey of Alfred Wielopolski The paper is concerned with Alfred Wielopolski and his archival episode in Voivodeship State Archives in Szczecin which took place in the years 1952-1962. He was „exiled” to the Voivodeship State Archives in Szczecin after he was banned from further work as an academic teacher. During the 10 years of his work at WAP, he was strongly involved in the development of the institution. Thanks to the initiatives undertaken by archivists, the institution quickly turned into a center of humanistic and scholarly life.

Diane Larsen-Freeman: Seven Personal Vignettes of the Person and the Scholar

This personal account narrates seven instances in which the author encountered Diane Larsen-Freeman as a person and scholar, and how those two identities are integrated in her work. As in many scholarly lives, these meetings were virtual (through the medium of print), vicarious (observations from a distance during conferences and summer institutes), and face-to-face. The common thread running through all these experiences has been Diane's generosity, wisdom, and positive power as a human being, and how her scholarship has been permeated by that humanity.

The Nature of the Sources: An Interview with Andrey Toporkov

In the second of our continuing series of interviews with charms researchers about their scholarly life and work, we present an interview with Andrey Toporkov conducted remotely (by e-mail) early in 2022 (subsequently updated in late 2023) by Jonathan Roper, who also made the translation from Russian. Andrey Toporkov is one of the earliest members of the Committee for Charms, Charmers and Charming, having first attended our meetings in London in 2005. Since then, he has been a familiar figure at our conferences. He is a Doctor in Philology, a lead researcher at the Department of Folklore at the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is also a professor and a corresponding-member of Russian Academy of Sciences.

Women’s Leadership in Islamic Boarding Schools: A Comparative Study of Islamic Boarding Schools in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam

It is common knowledge that men are the leaders of women, but Islam also encourages gender equality in education, which can be seen in the prophetic direction and the lives of salaf scholars, where at that time many female scholars emerged. Even so, religious boundaries must still be considered where in teaching and learning practice there can be no ikhtilat or mixing between men and women, therefore in the field of Islamic education, especially pesantren, it becomes a need for pesantren which only consists of women to the top. . In recent years, there has been a growing interest in women's leadership in these schools, as many Muslim women are seeking to become religious leaders.This comparative study aims to examine women's leadership in Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam. The purpose of our study was to analyze the different leadership roles of women in Islamic boarding schools in these three countries. We use a qualitative approach combined with literature studies with interviews as a data collection technique. In addition, we used thematic comparative analysis to analyze the data collected from the interviews. The results are; in Indonesia, women often serve as heads of pesantren, focusing on collaborative, community-oriented leadership emphasizing service and mutual support. Conversely, female leadership in Malaysian Islamic schools is relatively rare, characterized by hierarchical structures and strict rule enforcement. Brunei Darussalam displays limited female leadership, with some exceptions following a conservative, values-centered approach. The study underscores the influence of cultural, social, and religious factors on women's leadership styles in Islamic educational institutions. The research highlights the need for further exploration of these dynamics, enabling the development of policies and practices that foster inclusive leadership environments within the context of Islamic teachings. At the end of this article will be presented in the form of a table about a comparison conclusion between Islamic Boarding School and Women Leadership in these specified countries for better understanding

We “did not live by work alone”: an interview with N.S. Polishchuk

In an interview to S.S. Alymov, the ethnographer and philologist N.S. Polishchuk talks about her biography, academic career and work at the Institute of Ethnography in the 1960s-90s. The conversation covers topics such as the development of studies in the area of ethnography of the city and workers, the activities of the journal “Soviet Ethnography”, and the international contacts of Soviet ethnographers. N.S. Polishchuk further shares interesting information about the everyday life of scholars at the Institute of Ethnography, the fate of P.G. Bogatyrev, and much more.

Yurii Valentinovich Knorozov in the context of the soviet ethnographic science of the mid and late twentieth century

In an interview to S.S. Alymov, the ethnographer and philologist N.S. Polishchuk talks about her biography, academic career and work at the Institute of Ethnography in the 1960s-90s. The conversation covers topics such as the development of studies in the area of ethnography of the city and workers, the activities of the journal “Soviet Ethnography”, and the international contacts of Soviet ethnographers. N.S. Polishchuk further shares interesting information about the everyday life of scholars at the Institute of Ethnography, the fate of P.G. Bogatyrev, and much more.

The Loyal Scholar. Hindūšāh, Naḫjawān and the Juwaynīs

Abstract This article documents intellectual life in Iran under the Mongols through the case of Hindūšāh Naḫjawānī (d. before 728/1327–28), a scholar known primarily as a historian who has gained a certain notoriety thanks to the pioneering works of Edgard Browne and ʿAbbās Iqbāl on his Tajārib al-salaf. New sources allow to rectify a number of approximations and mistakes about his origin, his name, his works, his career and his scholarly interests. The resulting portrait of Hindūšāh illustrates several key features of the scholarly life of medieval Islam in general and of the Ilkhanid period in particular: social mobility (via Hindūšāh’s rise from a Turkish military background to a well-educated scholar), geographical mobility (through his constant travels from his home region of Naḫjawān), linguistic fluidity in his writings (between Persian and Arabic, but without the slightest interest in Turkish), political context (specifically, the increasing “Shiitisation” of the late Ilkhanate), and, last but not least, loyalty to his patrons. Hindūšāh not only enjoyed the protection of the Juwaynī brothers at a time when they wielded tremendous power in the early Ilkhanate state but also remained loyal to their memory decades after their fall in the 680/1280s. It helps explain his disillusioned view of historiographical writing but also his choice of works to copy. Hindūšāh remained an independent scholar, finding solace from distressing historical events in the study of philosophy and the reading of poetry.

Бенедетто Кроче. Вопрос о методе в истории философии

This publication presents a translation into Russian of Benedetto Croce’s essay from one of his later books “Philosophy and Historiography”. Here he raises the question of how the historian of philosophy should interpret those moments when the reasoning of a philosopher who is being studied is accidentally or deliberately not cleared up by him, or its development stops at a certain point. Considering the possible reasons for this, Croce touches on several themes to which his earlier writings were devoted and to which he returned throughout his scholarly life. Thus, he draws attention to the contradiction in the theory of knowledge of G. Vico, which consists in the application of the principle of verum-factum not only to history, but also to the mathematical sciences: on the one hand, only God can achieve truth in knowledge of nature, since he created nature, and on the other hand, truth in mathematics is available to man, since he “creates” mathematical elements and operations, and with them the method of natural science. Croce also points as an example to one of the contradictions in Hegel’s philosophy of nature, which consists in the confusion of empirical and speculative methods. It led to the endowment of the natural sciences with the status of “semi-philosophy”, to the untrue application of dialectics to the facts and concepts of the natural sciences. Convinced that the verum-factum formula can be combined with the teaching of absolute spiritualism, Croce warns against attributing such a connection to Vico himself, as this would mean incorporating later experience and a state of knowledge into his theory.

Celebrating the Scholarly Life and Contributions of Steven Floyd

Celebrating the Scholarly Life and Contributions of Steven Floyd

学科史的认知与课程教学的实践: 以《中国社会史》课程为例的探讨

The History of Chinese Society is a distinctive course in the undergraduate curriculum system of history majors. How to shift the teaching form of this course from the traditional rigid structure of the subject to a more vivid and the student-centered subject history is an important practice of curriculum reformation, which in turn drives a comprehensive understanding of the entire subject content. This teaching practice method had greatly changed the shortcomings of boring presentation of the subject structure in the previous curriculum teaching. Combining each research direction of the history of Chinese social history with specific scholars, combing the academic history of life of scholars, and showing students the subject history and subject frontier is a very worthwhile attempt and method, and also one of the achievements in the curriculum reformation and teaching practice of The History of Chinese Society.

William A. Brown and the Assessment of a Scholarly Life

William A. Brown and the Assessment of a Scholarly Life

From triple quandary to talent quest: The past, present, and future of A. Wade Boykin's contributions to psychology.

A. Wade Boykin's scholarship has provided key insights into the psychological realities of racially minoritized people and catalyzed revolutionary changes in psychology and education. Combining insights from personal and research experiences, Boykin authored the foundational triple quandary (TQ), a framework describing how Black Americans must navigate the often conflicting values and priorities of dominant mainstream society, the heritage culture of Black communities, and dynamics associated with being racially minoritized. TQ describes the unique developmental challenges faced by Black children, for whom misalignment between home cultural socialization and U.S. schooling often leads to pathologizing mischaracterizations of their attitudes and behaviors, resulting in chronic academic opportunity gaps. Boykin used his training as an experimental psychologist to empirically test the validity and explanatory utility of the TQ framework and to determine whether Black cultural values could be leveraged to improve student learning. Focusing on cultural values such as expressive movement, verve, and communalism, studies with his collaborators consistently supported Boykin's framework and predictions for improving Black student achievement-related outcomes. Beginning in the early 2000s, Boykin and his colleagues began to scale the lessons of decades of empirical work into the talent quest model for school reform. The TQ and talent quest continue to evolve in their application, as scholars and practitioners have found them relevant to a diverse range of minoritized populations in American society and beyond. Boykin's work continues to bear on the scholarship, career outcomes, and day-to-day lives of many scholars, administrators, practitioners and students across disciplines and institutions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Sheikh Muṣṭafā Dagistānī (1824-1909)

The land of the Ottomans had witnessed many migration movements. Dagestan and the people of Dagestan are one of the most oppressed groups under the threat of Russia. In this article, I will touch upon the detailed biography of a Naqshī-Khālidī sheikh of Senirkent-Isparta who was separated from his family at a very young age. The short history of the lands of North and South Dagestan is also included in the article. He was one of the sheiks of Khālidī branch of Naqshbandiyya Sūfī order, which was established by Mawlānā Khālid al-Baghdādī and the most widespread Sūfī order at that time in the Ottoman lands. This article will further include Muṣṭafā Dagestānī`s connections with the renowned scholars and Sūfī masters of his time. While narrating his life story, I will demonstrate the relationships among the Sūfī masters and how the scholarly life of the intellects intertwined in the first quarter of the 19th century in Western Anatolia as well. Moreover, this article will encompass recently acquired family archives as sources of his biography and networks. . Keywords: Shaykh Muṣṭafā Dagestānī, Dagestan, Senirkent, Naqshbandiyya, Mawlānā Khālid al-Baghdādī